Two convict brothers escaped from Milan's Beccaria prison

Two inmates, brothers, escaped from the Beccaria prison in Milan. This was announced by the Lombardy secretary of the Sappe union Alfonso Greco, explaining that "they were in the advanced group and are the same ones who promoted the past riots and were never transferred despite their previous behaviour". "One of the brothers," he added, "is the third time he has attempted to escape". "It has been months that the Sappe has been asking for a position to be taken at ministerial level to protect those who work on the front line in prison, namely the women and men of the Penitentiary Police".

One of the two," stressed Gennarino De Fazio, secretary general of Uilpa Penitentiary Police, "had already escaped last June and was tracked down within a few days. There is evidently no peace in the country's prisons, whether one looks at the circuit for juveniles, where inmates remain until the age of 25, or the one for adults. And what is happening, of course, is not the result of chance, but has precise responsibilities to be sought in the political and administrative apathy that has raged for too many years now'.

"The two escapees are already being sought by the prison police and other law enforcement agencies and it is entirely probable that, within a few hours or a few days at most, they will be caught or even surrender themselves," he continued. "But that will not erase the flaws in the system that, for example, keeps 18-year-olds in the adult population burning alive and 25-year-olds in the juvenile population with 14-year-olds. An incomprehensible paradox'.

"For a long, long time - according to Sappe secretary general Donato Capece - worrying signals have been coming from the juvenile penitentiary universe: Palermo, Catania, Acireale, Beccaria, Turin, Treviso, Bologna, Casal del Marmo in Rome, Nisida, Bologna, Airola... we have recorded and continue to record, with worrying frequency and cadence, the recurrence of serious critical events in Italy's juvenile penitentiary institutes". And in this situation, with 15,000 prisoners more than the places available and 18,000 prison police officers less than what is needed, 'announcements and proclamations are no longer enough, incisive and immediate interventions are needed or the catastrophe will become more and more serious,' De Fazio concluded.

"An inspection at the 'Beccaria' Juvenile Institute in Milan by officials of the Department of Juvenile and Community Justice was completed in recent days, following which a number of infrastructural interventions were identified to be carried out with the utmost urgency. The Regional Investigative Unit of the Blue Berets, together with the Police Forces, is mobilised to track down the two young escapees". This was stated in a note by the Department for Juvenile and Community Justice, announcing that from tomorrow, moreover, "as per the previous days' orders, the change of the commander of the Penitentiary Police contingent and the arrival of a unit to support the agents and staff is planned. Welcoming the unit and the new commander, Commissioner Raffaele Cristofaro, will be the Head of the Department of Juvenile and Community Justice, Antonio Sangermano'.